A Touch of Frost
by bitofanerd
Summary: Summary: Katherine Frost is in Middle Earth, it took her a while to figure it out, but now she's certain. The problem is, Lord of the Rings was just supposed to be a story. She wasn't supposed to see death, feel pain or truly love anything about it. Only…she totally does. 3017-?
1. life as I know it

_Summary: Katherine Frost is in Middle Earth, it took her a while to figure it out, but now she's certain. The problem is, Lord of the Rings was just supposed to be a story. She wasn't supposed to see death, feel pain or truly love anything about it. Only…she totally does. On top of the drama of the situation, she has to deal with an obnoxious annoying man-boy who's stuck with her, the embarrassing girl problems, the fact that she understand none of what anyone is saying because they refuse to speak English and the constant degradation by those around her. (T for language)_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing other than my own creations and this story is written purely for creative purposes._

_3,834 words, I think every story should introduce their characters, so here goes! I'm probably going to take my time with this story and try to write thoroughly, but since summer is coming up I thought a few testing the ground chapters were appropriate! this is going to be a somewhat realistic story as well, I've been greatly inspired by two stories in particular and am crazed about the idea of the more plausible ones with real life situations -hopefully, enjoy! PS sometimes, I am a bit of a potty mouth (sorry!)_

**A Touch of Frost: Life as I know it**

13 June 2008 - Wales

_Some people are funny. _

Not in a 'ha ha, you're hilarious' kind of way, more in an odd, 'let's avoid that that strange person at all costs' kind of way.

I'm quite funny. I have been since forever, even when I was a baby really. My Nan used to tell me I never cried when I was little.

I just use to sit there, wide eyed in a world of my own.

My parents thought there might have been something wrong with me, but there wasn't- at least according to the doctors. Just their funny little girl.

It didn't change as I got older, I stayed funny. I said the wrong things at the wrong time, I nearly always ended up in embarrassing situations and people tended to think less of me because I refused to conform to what society expected. I was never quite thinking along the same lines as people around me.

But I really didn't care. My mam always used to say that you should only bother with those who are worth bothering over. It's better to have a couple of decent people in your life than a town full of fickle friends.

To be honest, I quite liked who I was. I was unique. I liked seventies music, balloons, early nights and playing hide and seek with my baby brothers.

I'm not normal, whatever normal is…and I never would be. But I was honest and good person and that was what mattered.

Yep, I was a funny one. It's not surprising really, that bad things happen to me.

"Take it back, I am not even worthy." I said slowly and certainly, still in awe.

I used my unused spoon to push the gift across the table in the direction of Paula.

I still couldn't believe this. This wasn't happening.

_How could this be happening?_ For the last few minutes I'd been squealing at the spontaneous present I'd received as Paula and Molly sat across the table, openly mocking me.

Of course _I was really_ going to keep it. I just wanted Paula to know how much it meant to me. I wasn't even sure why I'd been given a present, as far as friends go I was pretty poop.

"You are totally worthy. Keep it you loon." Paula rolled her eyes at me flicking the little velvet pouch towards me carelessly.

I opened my mouth outraged at her treatment towards it.

"Be careful with it….it is _precious _to me." I croaked lip quirking. I gained another eye roll for that one. My Gollum impression impressed everyone, including myself and my dozing dog, Spud who woke with a start, glaring at me dopily.

"Aw, maybe you _aren't_ worthy after all." The girl reached over across the table slowly, hand outstretched.

"Mine." I snapped snatching the gift closer to me, earning a couple of laughs.

"I don't know…Molly?"

"What's the worst that could happen?" Molly replied eyebrows raised.

"_The hearts of Men are easily corrupted_" Paula quoted in an eerie voice, trying to sound as mysterious as Galadriel had in Peter Jackson's prologue.

"Nah." Molly laughed "this is Frost we're talking about, if anyone has the power to resist then she does."

I stopped fingering the little pouch in front of me to face them both, trying to look impassive as I possibly could. Paula returned my emotionless expression while Molly sat glancing between us both, confused.

After four years, countless sleepovers, eleven camping trips (ten if you aren't counting that fox incident, we tended to count the fox incident, because let's be real, that was the best camping trip of them all) three family holidays, two weddings and one funeral, Molly Quinn still did not completely understand our sense humour.

I didn't blame her. I'm freaking nuts, but at least I'm aware and willing to admit it.

I tend to tone it down around most strangers and the elderly, but it was sort of generally known I was a little odd.

Paula was probably slightly less crazy and definitely better at controlling herself. Where Paula would refrain from being blatantly weird, I just couldn't hold it in, it was too hard. Much easier to just be who you are and damn society.

_Haters gonna hate _and all that.

Everyone knew everyone as we grew up, so our little escapades and oddities did not go unnoticed. In fact, mostly people mistook us for child-misfits and trouble makers. I'm prepared to fess up and admit that our reputation was mostly my fault, I definitely instigated more adventures than I'd been dragged into by Paula.

Unfortunately my type of adventure was more often than not completely dangerous.

An example could be the time we'd gotten stranded on that stump off the coast at high tide. It was definitely the story people used when referring to us. There had been search parties and coast guards and police dogs searching all night until we'd swam back the next morning wet and a little chagrined.

The sad thing is, that wasn't even the only time authorities had been called out to an incident I was involved in.

I did once accidentally set a bench on fire in my school, but that _really had_ been an accident. They'd threatened me with an ASBO for that, I think it's outrageous.

It was gutting that people tended to remember us for all the bad things that happened. I never ever meant for bad things to happen, we just had very little luck.

Until we reached secondary school Paula and I were thought of as a double act. It was true we'd been inseparable since infancy, but that was unavoidable. She'd been the only cool child near my age group in the abysmally dull village we'd grown up in.

Where fun was, Paula and I were…though my definition of fun normally entails film marathons or themed sleepovers…or setting benches on fire according to local sources…they only ever included _m_y name in that little happening. Paula was in on everything else, we were like Bill and Ben or shorter, cooler versions of the chuckle brothers (minus the moustaches) and I would never ever want to be without her.

Yep, Paula and I may have been troublemaking outcasts since infant's school but from birth to adolescence she was literally the only person who ever understood me.

And that was when Molly was humbly welcomed into our lives, making the duo a trio. She also significantly decreased the trouble Paula and I were often involved in…but I think that might have improved with age…maybe.

We were one year into secondary school when she'd arrived with her star wars pencil case and _shocking_ white socks. By that point everyone had paired up with childhood friends, a routine had been made and no one was ready to welcome the geeky new girl.

That, and Molly was English. To truly understand the sort of racism that some Welsh and English people with extreme views encounter you'd have to witness or experience it.

Or watch Gavin and Stacey, but it's truly real. There were some people, namely older families who were completely into welsh-supremacy nearby and that prejudice had been forced onto their young children.

Children are mean, aren't they? Molly Quinn had been completely excluded. Except by the infamous bad-asses of class eight C.

Poor Molly, she never even knew what had hit her. I think she could have led a perfectly normal life if she'd never met Paula and me. But then, with the dork pencil case in a class full of girly girls, and asshole boys, I think the three of us struck gold that day.

I might not have known it then, but Molly would become just as important to me as Paula. We'd definitely had more to bond over.

I needed Paula in my life like I needed my left leg. It was almost as though the way we'd grown up had made us dependent on each other. We fought like sisters and sometimes we took things too far, but it was always forgiven by the next day.

Paula had matured a lot over the last few years, she was clever, astute and life was going to treat her well. But as we'd gotten older, we'd had less and less in common.

Molly had definitely tried to mature over the last few years but I was like an anchor holding her to the bliss that was an irresponsible childhood. She didn't put up much of a fight, happy to join my fun. Paula was always there keeping us rooted to the ground, helping us avoid trouble and being totally dependable and expert in offering advice.

It was hard to think of a life without Paula or Molly.

But unfortunately I'd spent more time lately thinking about the future than anyone as helplessly childish as I, ever should. I blame the education system.

We were one year into our two year stint at sixth form in our old secondary school, in fact we had just finished our first year AS exams for the summer.

An assembly a month ago before exams had started had freaked me out pretty badly in ways that I hadn't been prepared for.

We'd been sat down in the gym and given a talking to on the options for the future after sixth form had ended. I scarcely plan what I'm going to be doing the next day, let alone in a whole year. We'd been given information on universities, jobs, apprenticeships and even a shameful few comments on how to cheat the government out of grant money and benefits from our sports teacher.

Although I was glad when we'd been freed from that assembly it hadn't been the guidance or thoughts of the future that had freaked me out, it had been Molly and Paula's reaction to it.

Obviously I knew Paula wanted to go to university, she was going to be a primary school teacher, I knew Molly wanted to work in health caring for people too, but what I didn't know was that they'd made _plans._

Paula had already decided on her top three universities, none of which were in Wales and was going to an open day in the autumn. Molly was torn between university and a college course to lead her straight into care work, both of which paths led her straight back to England to live with her grandparents.

But what about me?

I couldn't believe they'd never even mentioned all this stuff before. All the plans they'd been making without me, when I had no clue what I was going to do. I doubted I was clever enough for university, I barely scraped any GCSE's last year and it would be a miracle if I passed my AS this year.

My parents told people I was street wise to make up for my lack of, well, brains. I'd taken un-educational subjects like art, physical education and classical civilisation. In my defence, I'd started with maths in September, to drop it three weeks in.

University was out, that was a given. As far as finding a job, doing what, or where?

I didn't want to stay here, living with my parents while two of our three musketeers were hundreds of miles away making new friends and doing new things. But there was no where I could go, no one I could live with even to get settled outside of Wales bar an uncle who lived in Scotland..._but we didn't talk about him_.

I'd sulked with Molly and Paula for days after they'd revealed their plans, neither of them knew what they'd done wrong, to be honest _I'm_ still not even sure what they did wrong. I guess I was just disappointed in myself for being such a block.

Or maybe scared that I might lose the only people that really matter.

We'd been through everything together.

All our hopeless phases, copying school work, girl stuff while growing up, gossiping about boys and everything in between. I didn't really know who I was without Molly and Paula.

There'd been so many awkward moments that all of us wish we'd just forget and so many amazing things that would remind us of each other always.

Like Paula's first date, she'd left crying after he'd insulted her red hair and her love of chess. The second of which I totally agreed with. No one regrets Paula's chess phase as much as Molly or I.

Then there was Molly's Star Wars…well, you can't even call it a phase. Star Wars was Molly's childhood, thanks to her I know all the lines of every movie, and I also know that George Lucas committed a travesty by changing Anikans ghost in the final film. Thanks Molly.

What I hoped to be remembered for, was my Tolkien love. I'd seen the films when I was young and shunned them, but a couple of years ago, during a short lived Orlando Bloom crush found myself completely obsessed. After the films I'd read the books after the books I'd read other Middle Earth literature, then trawled the internet buying posters and novelty mugs.

My grandmother was the only one who tolerated my constant Middle Earth comments, despite probably not understanding most of them.

Molly and Paula will never enjoy the extended edition again after my constant nit picking over the loss of Tom Bombadil, The Dunedain rangers, Dol Amroth and most importantly Glorfindel. I'd physically removed Molly from my room when she'd had the audacity to defend Arwen's presence saving Frodo from the ring wraiths, I'd even made her sleep on the landing outside my bedroom that night.

_Never underestimate the wrath of a fan girl scorned._

We'd all had everything together, I didn't know who I was without them.

I guess that bring us full circle to the celebratory exam meal, consisting of beans on toast and ice cream thank you very much and the ridiculously amazing present I'd been given.

It really was phenomenal.

We sat for a few seconds in silence, blank faced. Molly coughed, trying to break the staring contest Paula and I had instigated. It didn't work.

Those big green eyes stayed firmly on my blue ones. I held it for a few more breaths before letting my eyes flicker to my new gift with a chuckle.

Aw, I'd failed.

"I don't think she's strong enough to resist you know." Paula disagreed with Molly.

"You could be right. She'd break like Boromir under the pressure."

"Ugh" I scowled. "How dare you! Boromir was a good guy! He only wanted to save his people!"

Cue another eye roll. Ah, even Paula and Molly, the _uno_ and _dos_ to my _tres_ couldn't understand the passion I felt for lord of the rings.

Bah, obviously I knew it wasn't really real. I knew that Tolkien could have changed so many things and I might not have loved it as much as I did not if he had. In one draft Aragorn was going to marry Éowyn, but then Arwen wouldn't even exist! And in another draft Boromir was going to _betray_ the fellowship to Sauruman, instead of dying bravely to save Merry and Pippin, why would Boromir do that? _Why?_!

I pulled the draw strings and dropped the ring into the palm of my hand to examine it again.

The one ring to rule them all.

_Mine_.

Ok, it wasn't really the one ring. But it was beautiful. It was round, gold, shiny and perfect down to the engraved elvish script.

"One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." I sighed a dazed expression on my face, I didn't even need to look at Molly and Paula.

I was literally absorbed in the details of this perfect present.

I spontaneously undid the string necklace from around my neck, to slip the one ring on and tie it back round my neck. It clattered against the tiny unicorn pendant still there before falling comfortably against my chest. I might have worn it around my finger if I were more of a ring person.

The one thing that was with me at all times was my grandmother's ring. It was something that I would fight to the death to protect. She'd given it to me a couple of months ago before she'd passed away. It was a bulky thing, real plain but with a tiny red stone set in a star in the middle and the name _Margaret_ engraved into the side.

I had no idea who Margaret was and my grandmother refused to say. She'd died before I could convince her to tell me and now I'd never know. She must have been important because the ring never left her dainty finger for as long as I knew her and I was determined it would never leave mine. _That was important_.

The one ring was amazing, but it would never compete with anything sentimental. It belonged safely around my neck to remind me of what awesome friends I had found myself.

I touched it again where it sat after a second- it wasn't my fault, I couldn't help it. It was so pretty. And shiny. And gold. And did I say pretty already?

"Paula?" I asked eyes still on the ring.

"Yes Frost?" She sounded amused.

"You are beautiful and wonderful and I apologise in advance for the next insult I throw at you. I love you insane amounts right now. Like if you asked me, I'd probably have your name tattooed on my face…" I trailed off.

"I told you she'd love it." Paula spoke.

"I'd still rather a lightsaber." Molly disagreed.

"The ring makes you invisible."

"Yep, but I could still get you with a lightsaber, invisible or not."

"Nothing could ever separate me from this ring." I shook my head at the notion. "I'm gonna marry this ring, then maybe have some little baby rings, but they'll be shunned by society for being half human/ half evil ring…they'll have a tough childhood, but in the end it will make them stronger." I nodded to myself, babbling incessantly.

"Maybe we should give them some time alone together?" Molly snickered.

"I think that might be for the best." I agreed, still not looking at them.

"Jeeze. I'm going to live to regret this." Paula laughed out loud "But you're right, it is time for some much needed rest. No school, no work, no exams for _months_. This is going to be the best summer ever."

"True story." I agreed seriously, standing as the other two did. Molly and Paula looked a bit surprised, maybe that I'd finally dropped the ring beneath my t-shirt but probably because I led the way down the hall to the front door, merrily. I was in a crazily good mood.

"Wow. Are you ill? When was the last time you showed us out of your house?" Paula asked in disbelief.

"I don't think I've _ever_ been showed out of her house." Molly chirped in.

"Only kicked out." Paula agreed.

"Remember the time she made us leave through the window?"

"You loved it." I scolded.

"Molly broke her wrist." Paula corrected as I opened the door, like only a gracious host could.

"Pft. Molly is a weak wristed girl. Now get the hell out of my house." I gave them the widest, most sinister smile I could muster as I bowed them out of my door.

"Freak." Paula muttered.

"Creep." Molly added following closely behind.

"You wish you were this cool." I called after them, door half shut not bothering to watch them leave. What was the point? They'd be back again in a few hours. They were like an infestation that I could not get rid of.

I saw enough of them as it was anyways. There were as many pictures of them as there were of me and my brothers dotted about the house…was that weird? _I think that's weird._

I glared at one of said pictures as I walked past it through the hall. A fourteen year old Paula, crazy red haired, green eyed perfection and Molly with her short dark bob and bright blue eyes, she always managed to look innocent and confused. I barely spared a glance at the plain, mousy haired girl grimacing between them.

I think my parents put that picture up to punish me for something, it was the ugliest picture of me in the history of existence.

There were maybe a couple of decent ones, where I could maybe, nearly, just pass as a pretty seventeen year old. But photos like that were few and far between and my mother was fond of pictures of her 'babies' in our school uniform days, with round cheeks (which I still have), acne and braces.

I moved on to look at my gorgeous younger brothers pictures wondering why I was the only uggo child in the family.

Tom, Josh and Benjy. They really were lovely. Golden hair, blue eyed perfection. But then at ten, seven and five they were still small enough to be adorable. I'd outgrown the cute.

I know some people dislike their siblings, Paula detests her brother, but I genuinely loved mine. They were the sweetest most lovely little boys ever. They'd follow me around and play games with me and some nights Benjy would crawl into my bed and cuddle up after nightmares. He'd always come and check with me before going to our parents. It gave me a bit of a proud feeling inside, the way he'd trust me to keep him safe.

My parents didn't think they could have children, even I came as a bit of a surprise to them when my mother found out she was pregnant. They're fifty now and didn't plan on having more after me, Mam had to give up work to look after the boys, but they were little miracles.

How could I be related to such wonderful kids? Not that it mattered, I had more important things to think about!

I genuinely couldn't believe I had the one ring. Eek!

I literally skipped back to the kitchen to clean the mess up before going to bed that night. It was crazy how one afternoon with Molly and Paula could settle all my fears again. It didn't matter if we all moved away and went to different universities because they were stuck with me for life.

My life was pretty damn perfect. Beautiful brothers, loving parents…some qualifications. _Amazing friends._

I would be their bridesmaids, godmother to their children and bury dismembered body parts if ever they found themselves caught up in a bloody, suspicious murder.

It probably wasn't the best thought to fall asleep on, but that night I drifted off without a troubled thought in my head, looking forward to the amazing summer to come with my two best friends.


	2. hungry, thirsty, tired, BLAH

_Summary: Katherine Frost is in Middle Earth, it took her a while to figure it out, but now she's certain. The problem is, Lord of the Rings was just supposed to be a story. She wasn't supposed to see death, feel pain or truly love anything about it. Only…she totally does. On top of the drama of the situation, she has to deal with an obnoxious annoying man-boy who's stuck with her, the embarrassing girl problems, the fact that she understand none of what anyone is saying because they refuse to speak English and the constant degradation by those around her. (T for language)_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing other than my own creations and this story is written purely for creative purposes._

_3,896 words, it's been edited so hopefully there shouldn't be too many mistakes!...  
Who am I kidding? I have problems spelling my own name sometimes, if you spot any I'd appreciate them being pointed out nicely, which I'm sure they will be, because only kind awesome people read LOTR fanfictions, right? _

**A Touch of Frost: hungry, thirsty, tired, BLAH**

14 June 3017 – Middle Earth

"_Why_?!" I wailed the word stretching out for as long as possible to vent my frustration.

My head turned to glance in the direction of a scuttling sound nearby, an animal had clearly not appreciated my little outburst and had decided to get as far away from me as possible.

It sounded like a fox or something big.

Probably for the best. I was in such a foul mood I'd likely throw a string of abuse at anything I could whether it was a person, bird, beast or an inanimate object. But then, maybe it would make me feel better after the disastrous day I'd endured.

I bent over picking up an ugly, misshapen rock for no reason, turning it between my hands before carrying on with my walk.

I scoffed at the word_ walk_. It made this little trip sound so pleasant, the reality in fact was not that pleasant.

I'd been so happy last night, cosy in my bed thinking of the things me and my friends could get up to through the summer; the camping trips, the holiday with Paula's parents, the endless sleep.

And _our_ family holiday to France, it was Benjy's first time on a boat, he was so excited. Paula and Molly were coming too obviously, we were going to wear berets, eat cheese with baguettes, try snails and pretend to understand art in the museums my parents would no doubt trick us into going to.

It would have been _so_ good.

What I'd woken to, had not been the best start to my perfect summer. It had been pretty awful actually. Before I'd even opened my eyes I knew that something was wrong. No longer was I tucked into my warm, familiar bed with a thick blanket about me. Nope.

Instead I'd found myself, curled in a ball, against a tree in the middle of…well, who knows? It was definitely a forest, with lots of very tall trees. They towered over me against the rising sun, threateningly.

Judging from the suns light in the summer, it was probably little after six when I'd opened my eyes. Though I'd woken in the shade of a great tree, the light shining between the leaves and branches was obvious and very unwelcome.

Anything but the dull blue that was my bedroom was an unwelcome sight.

My back ached so badly, after I'd moved out of the foetal position I'd slept in against a humongous tree.

That was difficult enough to cope with, waking up somewhere, completely lost and alone without knowing how you got there. But I couldn't help but feel like life would have been better if I'd have had more substantial clothes on than my vest and pink pyjama shorts. Or even a hair bobble to tie my scruffy mess away from my face.

In an ideal world, this day would never have happened.

But in a slightly messed up world I'd have woken up surrounded by food, a laptop, phone- maybe a roll of toilet paper. I could deal with the sore back, the lack of shelter and the complete impossibility of the situation if I had just been given the means to get myself back home.

Instead I'd been left nothing. All I had was what I'd fallen asleep in.

There was no doubt in my mind that I had been brought here, wherever I was.

Drugged first probably, driven away by a crazy man and left in the woods to be mauled by bears. There was no way that I could have ever slept walked into the forest, someone else did this.

I sat there for probably an hour, entertaining the idea that I'd been dropped into a survival show- like I'm a celebrity or a fake apocalypse programme, probably invented by Derren Brown.

That would be such a Paula and Molly thing to arrange. I took a bit of comfort in that idea, because at least then I wouldn't be completely alone.

No one answered my calls and there was no sign of any cameras, people or even a trace that anyone had been here. There were no footprints, no rubbish, no nothing.

I couldn't describe how BLAH I felt. It was confusing and horrible because of how lost I was but there was no point in crying. Nothing would happen until I made it happen.

No matter how I'd gotten there I decided it wouldn't do any good to sit there all day and wait to be rescued. If it was some sort of show, then I'd likely have to accomplish something before I was let go. If I'd been kidnapped and dumped nowhere, well then I needed to get the hell out of here anyway. I can't be dealing with no crazies.

If I had been left here, I'd probably come across a house, someone who could lend me their phone or I could at least try hitching at the nearest road. Either way, sitting and sulking wouldn't do me any good.

So that's what I'd been doing all day, walking. I picked a random direction and stuck to it as best I could, going straight. Sometimes slowly, sometimes fast. Once a bird dropped a dead animal through the trees and it scared me into a straight out sprint.

It had probably been aiming the animal at me, which was the sort of luck I'd had through my life. Animals bombarding me with their rotting prey, what is life?

By midday I'd realised what a massive forest I must be in because I'd walked past thousands of thickly packed trees and it showed no sign of letting up. It was just tree after tree after bush after tree. It might have been hypnotic if it hadn't been so mind numbingly boring.

I was so hungry. And thirsty. And tired. And sore. And BLAHHH.

Part of me was a little proud of how well I was handling this situation. I hadn't shed a single tear, completely focused on finding someone and getting out of the mess I'd woken up in.

Everything made me feel a bit bitter, because I had no idea what was going on and was pretty sure none of this was my fault. It was so pooey that this had happened to me.

Why hadn't someone jumped from behind a tree and yell 'got cha!' yet? I was in actual pain, I was swearing and sweating and in a living hell. Sometimes I imagined that I heard crunching nearby, as if there were footsteps following me, crunching over leaves but every time I stopped they'd die away.

My brain was just being evil with nothing to distract myself. I'd moved on from the abduction and game show theories onto other possible explanations. They ranged from a sort of Hunger Games idea, where I'd have to fight to the death with a bunch of kids to a possible accident at home, which left me in a state of comatose.

I even went as far as to weigh up how well I'd do in the Hunger Games or an Apocalypse. I was quite a fast runner and pretty fit after the year of sports but other than that I had nothing and I doubted I could kill anyone ever, I'd just curl into a ball and beg for my life. But at least I was use to camping and the outdoors I knew people who would crash and burn in my position. Sometimes it pays be a little bit crazy.

The highlight (or lowlight depending on how you viewed it) of my afternoon was the first toilet break. All I'd needed was to pee, thankfully, but the idea of people catching me as I leant against the tree and did my business gave me a nasty case of stage fright. As hard as I tried I couldn't do it on the first attempt. Or the second. I chickened out and carried on walking until it was unbearable and as it often is, third time lucky.

All in all, it was a pretty depressing day. If I ever found out who'd caused this, then I'd bankrupt them with therapy bills. I was no lawyer but I'm pretty sure some human rights had been broken.

By the time the sun had started to set I'd just made it to the end of the maze trees, _finally_. But all this did was create a handful of more problems for my blank little mind to deal with.

In all fairness, it had been a pretty warm day. I'd managed to walk happily pretty far even walking in just pyjama shorts and a vest, _with no shoes._ At one point I thought I'd stepped in actual animal poo and I'd freaked out, but it turns out it was just really gross mud.

_I hope._

The first heat breaking problem that had popped into my head would have to be, that…I had to finally admit to myself…that I had no clue where I was. I was definitely nowhere near home any more. Instead of the towns and hoards of people I'd been desperate to see, all there was in front of me was fields. There were a few tree's dotted about but mostly, just fields. There were a few mountains far away, but they were more than a day or two's walk.

Why weren't there any people? I couldn't see a single house in the light that was left from the sun, there weren't even animals! After deciding the likelihood of a helicopter flying in to rescue me was pretty slim I'd resigned myself for another day's walking tomorrow. With no shoes.

I sighed looking down at my _poor _beaten feet. It had been a rough day, with more trips and falls than I cared to remember over roots, uneven land or just over my own feet.

But now after a full days walking, with blistered throbbing feet, no food no water and no rest I had to decide what to do.

I know how appealing the idea of rest after so long walking sounds, but to me, then it really wasn't. My parent's always said I could handle myself, which often made up for my poor school grades, so I stood there in as the sun crept below the hills weighing up my options.

Carry on walking was looking like a disgustingly good idea, it would mean I'd have less to walk tomorrow before I found people or houses or food. _I am so hungry_.

I could definitely carry on, it would be painful but I could make myself do it and just imagine how good it would be to get home and crawl into my bed. Plus the ground looked pretty clear from what I could make out, just flat fields for at least a few miles.

But on the other hand what the hell did I know?

Yes, I'd been on camping trips. I loved the good outdoors, living like a wild thing. The truth of it was, I didn't know nearly as much as I needed to know to handle something like this. I could see some still of the landscape, but how long would the light last? And then I'd be walking into the middle of an open field in the dark. It didn't matter that I couldn't see anything, what if other things (namely animals) could see me?

Local stories niggled away at my mind as I stood there trying to make a decision. Once a man had been in one of the fields over the hill and had fallen into a fox trap, left by his owner to protect his sheep. They guy had been there for days, he'd lost his foot and had been pretty ill afterwards for a long time. I didn't like the idea of that happening to me. _I'd grown very attached to both my feet._

I snorted out loud at my little pun, thinking it was a pity no one was here to enjoy my fine company.

Anyway…I liked both my feet where they were, so any traps needed to be completely visible. Plus, there was cover under the trees. I didn't know what was out there. Just sheep no doubt but what if there was more? What if there were wolves who fancied a change from their lamb diner. I was too young and pretty to die, minus the pretty.

A final thought that refused to leave was how thirsty I was, my throat was really sore and ached whenever I thought about it.

So it came down to a question of, was it worth saving time if there was a risk of losing life or limbs?

It really was a very tricky question, _not_.

In the end I decided to walk backwards a few steps into the forest, close enough to see the open fields and curled up against a tree again, hugging myself for warmth, again grateful this hadn't happened a few months earlier, during the February snow.

I don't remember if I actually got any sleep that night. I remember the sounds of branches creaking, animals dashing through the trees, the wind rustling against everything it could find. My heart beat ridiculously fast the whole night. I imagined with every sound that there was a lunatic with a knife or a rabid animal ready to end my existence. All I could do was sit there listing to every, single noise. I wasn't made for stuff like this…

Even without the sounds I doubted sleep would take me. A tree trunk isn't an ideal place to settle. My stomach genuinely was rumbling so loud at one point I thought it was thunder and my throat…just ow. It was so dry, even breathing drew attention to how sore and in need of water it was. I would never, ever underappreciate the basics in life again.

How many days could you survive without food or water?

I definitely knew you could last longer without food, but I really wasn't planning on finding out.

As soon as the sun had made a hazy appearance in the distance I was up and walking again. Unfortunately shoes hadn't miraculously appeared in the night, so I was wearing none again and winced with every step.

I never realised what a wimp I was before, I'd always prided myself on being a tough nut. _Today, we will find home_, I was certain.

That's what kept me going for so long, stumbling along through field after field with no water or rest until the sun started to set again, repeating the previous night's discomfort and then some.

I think I'm going to die out here. _Literally_.

I know people exaggerate about how bad situations are every day, but this really was off the scale. I hadn't seen anyone since Molly and Paula, which was _six _days ago. I hadn't even seen any sheep. I'd just been walking and walking and then walking a bit more.

I couldn't even imagine how many miles I must have walked over the last few days. For a couple of them, I had walked through mostly bare fields with the occasional sputter of trees. The third day I was almost glad when I reached more forest land.

I wasn't sure where the relief stemmed from, part of my brain had felt so vulnerable in clear view walking through fields for days and the forest offered much more cover. But then how would anyone rescue me if they couldn't see me through the trees? I'd argues with myself for a few minutes but there really wasn't a choice, it was walk through the forest, or turn back.

The forest might actually have turned my luck around. I'd found a stream early in and I'd actually let a few tears of relief out as I tasted the water again. Once I was finished I let myself worry about catching diseases from dirty drinking water, but I was in such a relieved mood that I didn't even care.

My hunger was still a major problem, I'd found a few berries and had eaten them like a crazed animal, and damned the risk of being poisoned! Cats and all sorts had probably peed over them anyway.

It was a bit of a relief to sleep against something again, if you could call the nights I spent paralysed with fear sleep. I'd probably had a dozen hours over the last five nights. I was so tired, that I barely cared where I walked any more. If I fell, I hurled myself back up again and carried on walking.

Walking to where? Hopelessness was starting to take over.

I couldn't even imagine the state I looked in. My pyjamas were just disgusting. My greasy hair clung to my face, still without a hair bobble it was getting to be a nuisance. It didn't even look brown any more, it just looked wet.

I was covered in dirt and cuts from all the walking (and falling!). I hadn't shaved in days either, which might have made me feel self-conscious if I were to come across anyone, especially because of how scantily clad I was. And don't even get me started on the stench that was _me_. I'd tried splashing myself cleaner in the stream a few days ago to no avail.

A little part of me wanted to look a mess, that way when people finally found me, everyone would be totally horrified and guilty about getting me into this situation. I bet my family were going ape back home, wondering where I was, and looking frantically for me.

If this was a game, then what would happen if I passed out from hunger or exhaustion? Would I wake up in hospital surrounded by family…and food?

If this was a kidnapping story, at least I could comfort myself with knowing I probably wouldn't be judged too badly, hygiene wise. I'd survived nearly a week in the wild, when I got home people would be so relieved and impressed. I was like Bear-_freaking_-Grylls. Sort of.

After six days of field and forest walking, that brings me to the present day. The lowest point of my trip. I'd been jumpy and on edge for a lot of the time I'd been here, understandably. But I was so tired, hungry, thirsty and depressed that I'd stopped bothering to listen out for anything.

I was still in the middle of the forest, nothing bad had happened so far, so I'd lowered my guard significantly. In the end it didn't really matter that much.

I would have heard the noise whether I was on my guard or not. _Everyone in miles will have heard that noise_. It rang through the air like a breeze, chilling me to the bone.

I wasn't sure how I could describe the shrieking really. My vocabulary wasn't that advanced, Paula would know a great word to describe it. All I knew was, it gave me goose bumps. It sounded worse than a dying animal. It was like a desperate, hopeless…wailing that lasted a few heartbeats, then ended.

I hadn't realised I'd been holding my breath until I sighed in relief. The relief was unfounded as it happens. Moments later there were…at least seven other reason to worry.

The blood curdling sound was followed by unintelligible calling, I couldn't make out the words but it sounded like people yelling to each other. From across the forest. High up and low down, all far too close to comfort. The calling was followed by an odd sort of drum rhythm echoing in every direction.

_What was that? _

I didn't really have a decision to make. All I knew was that I didn't want to find out what had made those noises.

I was curious, by nature it often got me in trouble, but when it came to a situation that could put me in danger…I was more flight, less fight.

I didn't even think, I just ran as best I could barefoot in the opposite direction of the noises.

Why was I running? Part of me willed myself to stop, they could be people who could help me get home or they might be a search party looking for me. Then the less rational part of me argued that, that screech was not human. No human could make a terrible wailing like that. It had been in pain.

My brain wouldn't stop, trying to find explanations: hunting trips, filming a movie or programme, experiments….

I tried to ignore the pain in my feet as I stumbled forward, each step was a struggle but the sudden adrenalin kept me ploughing forward. But I had to keep moving. I had to get as far away from whatever made that noise. _Why was I so stupid_? I should have paid closer attention to whatever was around me.

_There were sounds in every direction._

I was paying more than enough attention now, and with every noise I was glad that I'd chosen to run. There was something definitely _not right_. Footsteps got closer behind me and a strange sort of grunting growl grew louder.

_Oh god. The noises were so close._

And you know when you have sort of a sixth sense, when you just _know_ that someth-

"Argh." I huffed, feeling the wind being knocked out of me.

I heard a strange sort of whizzing before anything else. It sounded like something being thrown or a bird very nearby, followed by a heavy thump. _That was when I felt it_. A sharp pain in my back and in the side of my face. It numbed all else, it was like a burning pulse between my shoulder blades, jolting through my body until I hit the ground, knees first.

I'd been stabbed. In the back. Something had bounced off the side of my head as well, leaving a faint pain in my temple.

I didn't have much time to form thoughts as I sat there on my knees. My vision was going blurry but I could see something coming towards me. It was quite big and moving slowly, measuring every step.

When their feet hit the floor the thud rang round, ominously. Breathing was difficult as well, each gasp of air was hitching in my throat and I could taste blood in my mouth, choking me.

All I could think was, what a horrible way this was to die. I'd never found out what had happened, how I'd gotten here. I'd probably just been some sick cruel game for evil psychopaths. I'd never see Mum or Dad again, or Paula, Molly, my brothers, Spud, _god I loved that dog_.

_Katherine Amelia Frost. Died age Seventeen. Daughter, Sister, Friend. _That's what my grave would say. If I even had a grave, maybe I'd just die out here and no one would ever know what happened to me.

Dead before I'd even had the chance to live…I'd never gotten a job…learned to drive…or even had a boyfriend.

Oh god I probably had minutes left. It was getting hard to form coherent thoughts. These will be the last few moments of my life…

"I…don't" I spluttered out towards the figure, before everything went black, unable to even finish a final sentence before everything vanished.

_I don't want to die._


	3. the pink pyjama conundrum

_Summary: Katherine Frost is in Middle Earth, it took her a while to figure it out, but now she's certain. The problem is, Lord of the Rings was just supposed to be a story. She wasn't supposed to see death, feel pain or truly love anything about it. Only…she totally does. On top of the drama of the situation, she has to deal with an obnoxious annoying man-boy who's stuck with her, the embarrassing girl problems, the fact that she understand none of what anyone is saying because they refuse to speak English and the constant degradation by those around her. (T for language)_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing other than my own creations and this story is written purely for creative purposes._

_4,077 words, The summary was probably not great, but I totally know where this story is going and this chapter is going to introduce some stuff that will be important later! Heads up, I've been a major fan and really want to do this properly even if it takes time, so even though summer is coming and there will be updates often, this is going to be a reasonable pace and Katherine isn't going to jump into the fellowships path, because I've seen that too many times. She's going to _get into _Middle Earth before she gets into Lord of the Rings! This has been edited too, yay, adding details and stuff so hopefully, enjoy! :)_

**A Touch of Frost: the pink pyjama conundrum**

21 June 3017 – Middle Earth

As it happens, I wasn't dead. I know, _drama queen_ or what. I guess in the moment, my imagination got away with me. I was a morbid person, by nature and ridiculously self-absorbed.

But in my defence, my back was killing me and it certainly wasn't the week spent sleeping against a tree. Every breath hurt. And I've never died before! How was I supposed to know what it felt like? I could still taste dry blood on the side of my mouth.

_Anyway_, I'd passed out from the pain…not died from the injuries.

I woke up to a disturbing scene none the less. Instead of opening my eyes to loved ones on a fluffy white cloud in the sky, I'd woken up in a dark cave with other people.

I guessed it was a cave at least, I'd been a big fan of hiking, cave walking and climbing so I was pretty familiar with the claustrophobic feel.

It was a pretty dry, with dark brown walls, curved neatly. Not like the jagged, damp caves in lots of Wales. It felt like it had been made for a purpose, the stone was quite neatly curved in a perfect oval shape with two visible exits…or entrances…let's just call them holes.

It smelt dusty and the scent filled my nose and covered the sweaty, dirty smell of my clothes after not washing for the last few days. That was probably a good thing.

I was face against the wall, so all I could hear was other people's shaky breathing. My hands were tied together tightly in front of me and I could feel a rope digging into my ankle where I'd been bound there too.

I'd rather be lost in the woods than this. What was even happening?

Why was I tied up? There was no logical reason for this.

I was either braver or stupider than I though, because I couldn't stop myself from wanting to face the room full of people. I wanted to know if there was any chance I could get out of here, where here was or really just see other people for the first time in days. I didn't want to feel quite so alone.

I gasped in pain as I rolled and pushed myself off the ground with my elbow.

"Try not to move." A deep voice sounded from behind me, closer than I had expected anyone to be.

Naturally, I moved. It's what people do when someone sneaks up and makes them jump. Pain jolted through my back at the angle I'd been sudden activity, releasing a string of chocked sobs.

"I said not to move." The voice sounded peeved, his accent was funny to my ears, definitely not Welsh. Maybe Scottish, or from Yorkshire? I wasn't an accent expert, though I'd gotten pretty good at perfecting my French one for our next family holiday. Ultimately it didn't matter, I was lost, tied to a wall and in major trouble, who cares where this guy is from?

"I'm not staying here. I want to get out. I want to get up." I said lowly, in the direction of the man.

"There's only one of those things, I can help you with." He grunted a reply. I heard him shifting, so it wasn't a complete surprise when I felt his warm hands at my back through my thin top pushing me into a sitting position awkwardly. From the angle he was helping me, it felt like his hands had been bound just like mine.

"Don't be a wimp, it's only a bruise. I'd be more worried about your face if I were you" He snapped at my pained sounds. How rude can someone be? We'd both been tied up somewhere and he was being a tool.

My face did hurt though. Ugh, who am I kidding? Everything hurt. And the confusion and the fact that nothing could possibly make sense was not helping with the physical pain I was experiencing. I hoped these people weren't going to make things worse.

What if the bad guys who had hurt and brought me here were still in the room? What if their breathing was the noise I'd been hearing?

My head was thinking too much again, it wasn't as if it wasn't irritable already.

"Oh, I'm sorry- is my pain offending you?" I snapped.

I looked up at him, but could only see an outlined face through the blackness.

The man and I had been tied in a particularly dark corner of the cave, completely covered in shadow. I searched in the direction of the voice and could barely see him, despite him being no more than a foot's distance from me. I could tell he had curly hair, but I couldn't even make out the colour. I could see he had quite a thin face, with a sharp jaw.

Why was I being an idiot and analysing his chin? _Who knows_? I waited for the response that never came before I tried again.

"Can you help me turn? I'm sure there are better things to look at than your face in here." I said it jokingly, forgetting that not all people like my sense of humour. In fact I'm sure if I hadn't forged such good friendships at a young age, I'd be a complete hermit. It took people a long time to warm to me.

The man huffed but shuffled closer to help me flop myself in the direction of other people, back against the wall. I managed not to make a sound at the pain in my back, as to not offend him more.

I did wonder about the face comment, lifting my hand to brush against my cheek. It felt a bit sticky and painful, but it had nothing on my back. _I wish I had a mirror_. Not that it would be very useful in this dark cave.

"Better?" He asked, pulling his hands away from me. It turned out, the rope bound around my ankle was joined to one tied around his. It kind of mad us rope buddies. I made a point of not repeating this out loud. So far this guy hadn't shown any sense of humour at all, I didn't blame him.

At least there were other people in the room that I could talk to, and try to find out what in the hell was going on.

"You can't speak to them." The man said, before I'd even opened my mouth.

"Well, I'm the new girl here! How am I ever going to make friends, if I don't at least try to?" I whispered at him.

"That isn't what I meant. Just don't bother trying. They don't speak English, I've tried." He told me sadly.

"What do you mean?" I sounded so gormless.

"_I mean_ they do not speak or understand English." He said very, very slowly.

What did they speak then? I glanced around the room at them curiously. How could anyone not speak English?

"_Boreda. Katherine ydw I, sut wyt ti heddiw_?" I said loudly into the cave. People looked at me, but no one replied. No welsh speakers either apparently. Or maybe they were just _really_ shy.

"How did you know I spoke English?" I spoke in a thick welsh accent towards the boy, making my words slightly unintelligible. I'd done it for humour, but nobody laughed. I'd not been insulted too much, only they guy would have understood that I was being funny I suppose.

"Isn't that obvious?" the boy sounded really frustrated by my cluelessness,

"Um…" I tilted my head thinking hard and looking at the people around me.

A quick headcount revealed there were seventeen of us, squeezed into the dingy little cage.

Cracks of light from the roof of the cave shone down in patches around the room making some more visible than others. It also let me know that we couldn't be too far away from freedom, we must be close to outside…you could probably dig your way out…only we couldn't _reach_ the ceiling.

What I could see of the people was not encouraging. They were mostly women, some were children the youngest was probably just into the primary school age. He was a very little boy that looked to be my baby brother's age. The thought of my family made my eyes well up.

Through the darkness I saw brown hair, red hair, many blondes and a handful of dark haired people. What made me any different to these people?

A low sigh, drew me back from deliberating.

"You're wearing pink bunny pyjamas." He grunted.

_Oh. _

I looked back at the people in acknowledgement. They _were_ dressed strangely. We all looked pretty grubby and dirty, but they seemed to be wearing very simple, old fashioned clothes. Like, really strange. Dresses that came down to the women's knees, scruffy tattered clothes were worn by the men. I wasn't the only prisoner without shoes.

Just then one of the women looked up to make eye contact, which I broke, turning away with a blush.

"You're not the brightest are you?" The man asked kindly. For some reason his tone offended me even more than his detachment had. I'd done damn fine wandering the woods alone for the last week! Until the nasty little attack. But I could take care of myself just fine!

"You didn't give me long enough! I would have gotten it in the end." I insisted.

His face turned in my direction, but I still couldn't see his expression in the dark.

"What's your name?"

"You first, sir." I sounded as pompous as I could.

"William Thorn." He said plainly in response to my fake snobbery. "Your turn."

"My name is Katherine Frost." I said proudly, I'd always quite liked my name. It was very nice and bold, sort of like me, but I was kind of quirky and too awkward to pull off a name that cool.

"Huh." Was all he had to say, my eyes narrowed slightly. I really didn't like all this dark, not being able to see his facial expressions. Because I know you can't read a lot into the word 'huh' but it definitely sounded as though he had something else to say, only then he didn't say it. I waited a whole minute for him to say something else, but it never came.

"What?" I pressed eagerly.

"Sh. I'm thinking."

Ugh, the nerve! He was being so rude. And I would have told him so too, if a cry of pain hadn't pushed all else from my mind.

A cry of pain, was somewhat of an understatement. An agonising scream broke what little conversations were being held around the cave. Everyone stopped and turned towards the noise, my mouth opening in horror.

It sounded as though it were coming from one of the tunnels, or both. It was worse, because it echoed about the little chasm we were all huddled in.

There were a couple more muffled cries, none as loud or brutal as the last before everything went silent.

"What was that?" I turned to William, horrified.

"Try not to think about it." He replied sombrely after hesitating.

"How can I not think about it? Why was someone screaming?"

I shoved him gently when it didn't look like he was going to respond.

"Please." I whispered into the darkness. No one else understood me. Some had returned to their worried conversations, the younger people were sobbing. There was no one else that could tell me what was going on.

"I'm not sure…" William said slowly. "I think…I think people are being…"

"Killed?" I finished, trying to keep the emotion out of my voice. Obviously, people weren't dragged into a cave and tied up just for fun, to be released a few days later. No matter how much I tried to focus on the strangeness of the situation- it would never make it less horrible. Something bad was always going to happen. I damned all the vivid horror films I'd ever seen, mostly by Eli Roth, They left bitter images in my mind.

"And worse." He added, though I barely registered his words.

I let the words '_and worse'_, bubble around in my head for a few hours. At least I think it was a few hours, time seemed to go strangely in a dark room with nothing to do but wait. I tried listening to other people speaking in their strange language.

It was like nothing I'd heard before. It sort of sounded like they were trying to speak in made up English words. They sounded like they really _should_ make sense, but they couldn't possibly have been real words. They must have been real words though because everyone other than me and the boy, 'William Thorn' seemed to understand everything perfectly.

They obviously weren't very pleasant conversations by the reactions of the people.

When I'd curbed my fascination with the language I tired talking to William again. But he didn't seem very bothered with speaking with me, he replied most of the time with vague answers or by changing the subject and shrugging off questions. I didn't really learn much about him, but his deep voice was comforting. It made me feel like there were _real_ adults around, because right then I didn't feel much more than a lost child.

It was nice just hearing English words. I was so lonely. And depressed. And scared.

More than anything I just wanted to go home.

I thought a lot about everything as we sat and waited. Home, Family, Food, anything but the future.

Eventually the time came, when thoughts of the future couldn't be avoided. It came really quickly too.

One moment we were all people, alone in the room fretting in our different ways. Then the thump of footsteps sounded and a shadowed figure appeared in one of the openings.

It wasn't a person. It couldn't have been. It stood against the blackness, hunched over and small.

I couldn't even see it properly without light, but its bones jutted out in all the wrong places and it had hair spurting I patches across its head. It had strange sort of piercings and tattooed patches across its green skin.

It definitely wasn't a human. Unless it was all make up? But then why would people do that…they must have been not humans…maybe they were deformed or were some sort of animal…or…I don't even know…

Nothing that had happened so far made any sense, this was just pushing it over the edge…

Worst of all was the smell. It smelt like a rotting animal, which I had little experience of. But the smell wasn't something you'd forget in a hurry, it filled my nose and throat and made me gag in my mouth. It was worse than the dusty cave and much worse than the smell that had accumulated on me from the week of wandering in the wild.

It stood turning its head from side to side, shuffling into the room, sniffing in every direction before it settled its yellow eyes, straight ahead. Its eyes grew maliciously, and I just _knew,_

He…_it _took a slow step in my direction.

God, I'd known he would. I was closest to him. _It._

I'd always had the worst luck in the world and after being spared death the previous day I was going to pay for it doubly now. I thought back to the cries we'd heard earlier...

I wouldn't scream. I wouldn't scream.

It bared its teeth in a half smile s it sauntered closer to me. It was even more repulsive the nearer it got. I didn't want it near me, I didn't want it anywhere near me, let alone touching me, ugh! Oh god, what did it want.

But he didn't stop coming closer until he was right in front of me and William bending over us threateningly. It had sick, yellow eyes, and bits of flesh dangling from its skin. Its teeth were black, though there were few of them.

I doubted my heart could beat any faster than it did as that creature lent in towards me, with its overwhelming stench, suffocating me.

He was grinning widely now as he lent in towards the rope binding William and my foot together. He was doing everything so slowly and I couldn't help it. I knew I shouldn't scream, that I shouldn't, but I let out a muffled sob. I knew how bad this was going to be. Oh god…

I was sort of overcome with it all. I couldn't believe how bad this was going to be.

He leaned in to my face to shove his hand through my hair and pull my head upwards, cackling a sick laugh.

It all happened very suddenly after that. I was cowering against the things grip, my tied hands were in my hair, trying to pry the _thing's_ tight hold from me. Then, it let go.

After a few beats and a scuffling sound dangerously close, William was at my feet with the thing wrestling it. It shrieked in a blood curdling way, and then just went stiff falling on the floor.

William was fumbling about with something at my feet and then he was kneeling in front of me, with a knife cutting the rope from my wrists.

_Everything is happening so quickly._

There were yells and garbled words coming down from one of the holes in the walls, echoing around us again. It sounded like chanting in some cracked, cursed language. A heavy drum beat followed vague words. Maybe I'd stumbled into some sort of cult sacrifice.

"Aw, shit." The boy cursed beside me, looking around at the separate people, one by one. The women, men, children, all of them. Then at one of the entrances. The people were calling out, crying.

He did a double take, before taking a firm step towards the exit at the sound of a heavy drum, louder than the rest, which sounded very close.

I spared a glance at the people huddled in the corner before William grabbed my hand and all but hauled me along with him.

And I just went. I turned my back on those desperate people, who were certainly going to die and I ran. I tried not to think of them, what they had looked like during the hours spent in the cave, William and I weren't even out of it yet. It was easily the worse thing I have or ever will do in my life. The memories of those children's faces as I was dragged away will haunt me forever.

We moved quickly through the darkness, tripping and using the hard walls to keep us steady. My feet were killing me still, after being cut and bruised over my wanderings in the forest. I wondered if they'd scar.

Williams's sweaty hand stayed firmly in mine, the whole way down the long, windy tunnel. He stopped to elbow another shadowy figure out of our way and into a solid wall, close to the entrance where a faint light was calling. The ting tumbled hard into the wall with a crack as he fell to the floor.

William was strong.

The way he acted, with such certainty at every decision, it made me feel like he'd done this before, or like he knew some of what he was doing at least. He was probably just going on adrenalin, like I was. I felt like a tiny child in comparison.

Once we'd made it outside the cave, we didn't even stop to enjoy the fresh air, the grass, light or trees. We ran, stumbled and sprang ourselves as far away as we possibly could from everything we'd left behind us. The dull light got brighter as the sun rose above us.

All I concentrated on was breathing. I was obviously slowing William down, but his hand was still holding on, now to my wrist, tightly as he pulled me forwards with him.

Eventually, after easily an hour of running even he couldn't carry on. He slowed dropping his hold on me and staggered to rest against the nearest tree. I collapsed into a heap on the floor. My feet were bleeding, there were thorns and stones imbedded into the soles. I was filthy, haggard and struggling to breathe, so I just stayed there curled in a sort of ball on the ground, whimpering with every haggard breath, waiting for something to happen.

"We have to keep going" A voice pulled me back to reality. I looked up and got my first proper view of William.

He shuffled forwards putting his arm under my shoulder and hoisting me until I stood again, before he started pacing.

His appearance didn't really match the deep, certain voice I'd heard in the cave. He didn't look that much older than I was. He had a young face, with a stubble growing around his mouth, bushy eyebrows and startling grey eyes. He was really tall, it was the most obvious thing He was massive.

He still had one of the creature's strange knives in his hand. It was black and oozing with a strange liquid. It hit me then that I was standing with a murder. That I was an accomplice to a murder. But those things would have killed us anyway. William killed that thing to save us.

…all them people were still going to die.

"I don't know where we are, but we're really far from any people. We have to get as far away from here as we possibly can before the sun goes down." He spoke, almost as if to himself.

"We have to back." I said suddenly. The faces of them poor people were imprinted in my mind.

"We can't go back." He told me sternly.

"We have to go save them, we have to try. How can we leave all of them? And just save ourselves." I shrieked in panic. I felt as if at any moment all those monsters would attack us again and then there wouldn't be any chance of helping anyone.

"I saved you." He turned back to face me again.

"I know…I know that, but what about all the people?!"

A minutes silence hung between us. I thought he might be thinking of a way to help. He was obviously clever, he had to find a way to save them.

"Collateral damage." He said blank faced, but his eyes looked sort of hazy.

_Collateral damage_.

I couldn't believe the words had come out of his mouth. I couldn't believe anyone could be so cold. They were going to die. They were definitely going to die and we had to do something. We had to save them…

I didn't know anything about him, I'd spent a couple of hours of silence in a cave with him but I still couldn't believe what he had just said. Talking about people as if they were dispensable.

"They're people! Real people, like you and me. And now they're going to be killed! And worse." I repeated his words back to him. "Tortured? Raped? Mutilated? What the hell is wrong with you?" I waved my arms wildly, as it might make the situation better.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise what a martyr you were before I saved you. If you want to go back, then I won't stop you! You think you'd survive?" He almost snarled, stepping towards me.

He sort of scared me a bit. He wasn't far off a foot taller than me, and I wasn't particularly short. As if having him towering over me wasn't bad enough, I could almost feel the rage radiating from him. He was shaking.

His eyes were flashing and he was taking deep breaths to calm himself.

Worst of all, he was totally right. He'd saved me. And I couldn't go back, I didn't want to. I was scared. But I could still see those little children huddled around the cave and I could still hear the cry of that person, echoing around the cave.

William must have taken the silence the wrong way or my frozen face had offended him because he turned around with a bitter laugh.

"Do what you want, I'm done with you!" he called striding away into more trees, leaving me to stand there alone.


	4. stuff I'm not overly proud of

_Summary: Katherine Frost is in Middle Earth, it took her a while to figure it out, but now she's certain. The problem is, Lord of the Rings was just supposed to be a story. She wasn't supposed to see death, feel pain or truly love anything about it. Only…she totally does. On top of the drama of the situation, she has to deal with an obnoxious annoying man-boy who's stuck with her, the embarrassing girl problems, the fact that she understand none of what anyone is saying because they refuse to speak English and the constant degradation by those around her. (T for language)_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing other than my own creations and this story is written purely for creative purposes._

_4,693 words, yikes! thanks__ nomsnickers, Of-Light-and-Shadow, H0N0R__ and the __guest__ who reviewed yay, follows! The time you took to write encouraging reviews means a lot :) I've edited every chapter so hopefully no mistakes _

**A Touch of Frost: stuff I'm not overly proud of.**

22 June 3017

I wasn't ashamed of my response to Williams's abandonment. I knew that the creatures, whatever they were, were probably looking for us again and I knew that I should get as far away as possible- try and find and follow William, but I just sat down, in the middle of the trees, pulled my knees up, hands to my face and cried.

I hadn't cried yet since I'd been here- _not properly._

There had still been hope then, during all the wandering I'd done, that it had been a joke –in very poor taste- and that I would find a way to get back at whoever had instigated it. But now that I was finally alone, out in the open again it hit me, how truly terrible life was.

Death. That was what was happening really, like right now, _close._

I'd never really been exposed to death, until my grandmother had passed a few months ago. It had been the worst time of my life. The way people had told me she'd gone to a better place, the way I'd scoffed bitterly at the notion.

Paula and Molly hadn't understood either, not really, even though they'd been pretty upset. My nan had lived with us since I was born, I'd loved her as much as I loved my parents and it had come out of nowhere. She hadn't even been ill, she'd just been there one day, then the next she was gone.

I could only hope there was a heaven after we died, but all I'd known then was that someone I loved had been taken away from me and that I might not ever see her again.

But this experience, though fleeting, was _nothing_ like that. I felt, sort of violated that I'd had to go through what I just had. I felt disgusted with myself, for being glad that I left, but guilty for leaving all them people. People that I didn't even know.

_Collateral damage_, that's what William had called them. But their faces in my memory were as vivid as my grandmothers was. They were all people, fathers, brothers, sons, children…

People were dying right now, for fun. I could be dying right now, if William hadn't saved me, I was all on my own and I had no idea what to do, where I was or why anything was happening. What was the point in living, if I was in a world this bad? _This awful_.

So I let myself cry, I let myself weep at the injustice of it all. Because I was alone and scared, because innocent people were dying and because I was probably going to be found and killed anyway.

For all my poor grades or ditsy moments, I wasn't an idiot and this was real life, people don't kill the bad guys and escape with their lives into the sunset. William probably would, but he was some bionic monster killer, who just saved me. And I was, well…the dumb ass damsel who needed saving! People get kidnapped and killed and worse all the time, happy endings were a rarity.

Huh, if I was as strong and quick as William had been…even if I did get the chance, could I actually kill anything? Even if those things, I thought back to the hunched shadow in the cave, even if they aren't human, if they're sick and sadistic and evil and I _wanted_ them dead, _could I kill them_?

I think I'd rather die than be responsible for something else's' death….well probably. Ideally, I like me being alive a lot. But the idea of me being a _murder, _was wrong. It was just not right.

I couldn't have been sat there long, before I heard footsteps approaching me. I didn't bother looking up. What was the point? It wouldn't change anything. Better not to see them again, better to keep crying till it's over.

_Ignore. Ignore. Ignore. Ignore. _

"Sorry." A gruff voice sounded from above me.

I sobbed harder, when I realised it was that stupid man-child. I was just being an idiot and a drama queen, imagining dying at every sound.

"You can't cry forever." He sounded frustrated again now, but not angry. I felt him lean down and haul me out of my ball, into a standing position, his arms dropping quickly away. "We really do have to go now."

I spent a moment, being amazed at how strong he was. Lifting me off the ground, like a sack of potatoes. And also how much I did not appreciate being man handled. Especially after his little anger-freak-out earlier. He'd been shaking with rage and seriously frightened me. He didn't look quite so frightening any more.

He stood tall and awkward in front of me looking guilty, hands in the pockets of his ripped jeans. Like a naughty teenager. He was dressed much better than I was, in grey T-shirt with sports trainers, though none of his stuff looked expensive (which the snob in me noticed), that was good because it was pretty well worn and ruined at this point.

The sight of shoes made me green with envy.

He looked perfectly equipped for a long walking, which was no doubt what we were about to do. I noticed again how badly he needed a shave, it made his large chin look even bigger. His shaggy hair, went in curls everywhere, in a fashion my mother _would not_ appreciate. He was sort of handsome in a scruffy kind of way, but still a tool.

_Did I want to go with him? _

No. not really, he was an ass. He clearly didn't care very much that we'd just abandoned people to die horribly. He'd almost left me to join them. And he'd made me cry.

I was mostly hung up on the _he made me cry_ reason.

I wiped what tears were left from my face, embarrassed at all that I'd shown weakness in front of him.

Who even was he? Some random man-boy that I'd been tied to in a cave with? A rope-buddy? Someone that had _actually_ saved my life…?

I huffed at the situation! Why was I here?

He was sort of all I had at the moment. He was _something_ to hold on to.

It didn't matter that I didn't want to go with him, because I wanted to be alone even less.

"After you, _Princess_." I waved my arm, gesturing him ahead of me.

Yea, I'd go with him. But I was going to make him suffer for being so mean to me. My amazing company and companionship conversation was going to be withheld until he decided he wasn't going to be a prat.

He strode ahead, glancing back every so often to make sure that I was following him probably. It was hard to keep up his pace, but I managed it barely without complaint. He walked, maybe twice as fast as I could and by the time the sun was high in the sky we must have walked miles and miles, through a forest, across some land and into another forest again. Me with no shoes. A gentleman would have given them up for a lady in need.

He didn't say a word as we walked. I did fall over once and he rushed back to help lift me from my feet. The furthest away he'd gotten was a couple of metres between us as we walked. But he didn't stay particularly close either. He was always a little ahead, leading the way.

That was the main reason I'd walked straight into the back of him. I hadn't realised until too late that he'd stopped suddenly. I crashed into him with an _oomph_ and sent myself flying onto my bottom only to have him sigh and hurl me back up again. None too gently.

I resented being man handled even if he was just trying to help.

I glanced around wondering why the sudden halt, seeing nothing particularly interesting.

"Why-"

"Sh."

_Ugh!_ No one gets to sh me.

"Listen." He told me head tilted curiously, eyes narrowed in concentration.

I rolled my eyes and listened, there was a breeze, the leaves were rustling there were birds hooting in the sky and…oh…could it be?!

I groaned, not wanting to believe it, before rushing after William who had just set off in the direction of the sound.

The closer I got, the more sure I was about the sound. It was like music to my ears, calling me closer.

I could see the light reflecting into the trees around it as we approached, I could almost imagine how it good it would be. All I had to do was walk a few more steps and- ah!

There it was.

_Water._

I dropped to my knees, not caring a wick how badly they hurt at the impact all but throwing my hands into the stream, to drink the water greedily.

I couldn't believe if William hadn't been here I could have missed this. Sure it was dirty and an odd brown colour and there was probably a chance that some ass had peed in it upstream, but it was water.

It was beautiful. Just perfect.

"We need to wash." He spoke once he'd finished drinking what he'd liked.

"We need to drink" I corrected scooping another handful of water into my mouth desperately.

"Why do we need to wash? We're out in the wild! We're like animals. I'm drinking from a bloody stream." I said sarcastically.

"Because you smell." Once the words had left his mouth I could tell he regretted it. My blush and his grimace were simultaneous.

_How insulting!_

That was like an actual mental kick in my face.

Yes, I smelt. I knew that, but I think it would have been a better idea to get as far away from the crazy murderers before I stopped for a bath. Plus he smelt too…probably not quite as bad as I did, because the smell of myself was making me want to be physically sick.

It wasn't that I liked being dirty and I'm sure I would have washed some without him telling me, but when you haven't drank in days, there's only one thing you want to do with water.

Instead of rising to the blatant hypocrisy, I chose to ignore it. And him.

"We both need to wash." He amended too late for me to forgive him.

"In front of you?" I asked, with raised eyebrows.

"Yes." He started pulling his dirty top over his head. It was dark already, so it probably didn't look half as bad as my pale pyjamas did.

"Fine, but only if…"

_Phwoar._

I stopped talking half way into my sentence, looking shamelessly at the boy, - nah man- in front of me. When he was being an ass he could be a boy, when he was being a shirtless, well-toned…just wow, then he could be a man.

Ugh. Whenever I thought about men and dates and hormones it was like a kick in the stomach reminding me that I was an adult now and that I was going to have to start making an effort to date and behave vaguely like a grown up in the real world.

I didn't really have any experiences with men and I could only see him side on, but he was a fine specimen as far as I was aware.

He turned towards me, probably at my silence, to reveal a long faint, pink line running down his chest to his belly button. I spun away, crouching down to splash myself with what little water I could, while remaining fully clothed.

I was eighty nine percent sure that he'd seen me ogling. But maybe he'd thought I was a bit gormless. All I needed to do was remind myself that he was rude and a jerk. I wanted to ask him how he'd gotten the scar across his stomach, but I really didn't know him well enough.

There were so many things that I wanted to talk about after the week of no one. I started holding one way conversations after we left the stream without a word, me trailing behind William. I wanted to know what had happened most of all. And why we hadn't come across anyone else yet. I wanted to know how William had gotten here. I wanted to know if he was going to leave me on my own again if I couldn't keep up.

After more walking with just my thoughts loneliness and curiosity got the better of me.

I had a feeling I was suffering more from the silence than he was, if anything he seemed to relish in the quiet. Although I walked behind him mostly, when I could see his face sometimes looked thoughtful, worried or sort of constipated. Though I'm sure he was just concentrating really hard on something. I decided it was probably not great to mention that straight away.

I really, really wished Molly or Paula were here right now. It turns out, I was less confident without them. I didn't know what to do. If they were here I'd call William up for being a pompous, slightly good looking twat.

Instead I trailed behind, enjoying the view and wondering how I could possibly change the depressing spiral I was falling into.

"_I'm so hungry_, William." I tried opening a topic. We'd obviously have this in common.

"We'll worry about food tomorrow. We have to keep walking." He called over his shoulder.

Keep walking? I sighed out loud.

William was a total slave driver. We'd stopped twice since washing in the river and both were fleeting. I couldn't even feel the pain in my feet any more. I couldn't feel my feet point blank, but I'd worry about that when we'd finally gotten somewhere remotely civilised.

The sun had already started to set, which meant we'd been walking for a whole day, nearly without stop. I didn't even know how my legs were strong enough to keep going. They creaked and ached with every step but they kept going long into the night.

When I'd asked William why we couldn't stop, he'd grumbled something about those creatures not liking sunlight.

I liked having two working feet and after hours of walking over stones and thorns and god knows what else I wasn't sure they'd remain attached for much longer. But they did, they carried on for hours and hours and hours and hours….

_My. Feet. Hurt._

"William." I whined his name like a brat, hobbling ahead to pull his massive arm to a stop. I dropped it almost immediately, as if he'd given me a shock. He was so warm, it felt a bit like a hot water bottle.

"I'm tired." I pouted, trying to look as helpless and pitiful as I possibly could. Sort of like my dog did at home when we were having something really nice for a meal and he wanted in on it. Only I'd never wanted anything more in my life than to stop right there. And to eat a decent meal would be nice.

I was surprised when his features softened slightly and when he spoke gently to me.

"We aren't very far from a field now, I don't think...it's better to sleep in the open if the creatures are afraid of the dark."

I hadn't really considered that he was as tired as I was, but he sounded damn weary too. When was the last time either of us slept? Because I'd been out in that cave for god knows how long while William sat awake.

Just make it to the field, I repeated in my head. But it was making me tired, the same words over and over again.

A little while after I'd given up trying to think rationally we ended the latest strip of woodland and came across a wide open plain. Turns out William had been telling the truth about the local landscape. I wonder if he'd been a boy scout.

"Do you know where we are?" It came out as a whisper. I was reluctant to speak loudly now that we were out in the open again. I was worried my voice would travel and alert people to our presence.

"I have no idea. Not Scotland that's for sure…" He trailed off.

He did live in Scotland then. And I lived in Wales. I wonder where we were. Probably England somewhere. But where in England was there _this much land_ without civilisation?

How could someone possibly magically arrive here from Wales without having a cue? Or from Scotland? If that is how William had gotten here….

"How did you get here William?"

There was a long pause.

I thrive in awkward situations normally, I feel right at home but when it was just William and I, I wasn't really sure what was appropriate. Was he ignoring me, if yes should I carry on talking or stop? Was he deep in thought trying to figure out what he was going to say next? Or was he spending the majority of his time concentrating on not falling and impaling himself on something, like I was?

"I woke up here eight days ago."

"I…I think I did too. I was just in bed you know…and then poof." I finished lamely. "Where were you before you got here?"

"Hospital, back home." He grunted.

"Oh. Were you hurt?"

"No."

Cue another unsure awkward silence. Luckily this one didn't last quite as long because we found ourselves a disgusting and amazing surprise about a mile into the field in the form of a dead rabbit, caught in a wired trap.

My first reaction was that I didn't think they still made traps like these. The poor animal looked like it must have suffered a lot before it had finally died. It was a very inhumane way.

My second reaction was, huh, William is such a little freak at the sight of him almost whooping with delight as he leant in to release the rabbit from the trap.

The third and final response was a dumbstruck one. I really, really wish I had been able to compose myself better, because I doubted either William or I would ever forget the expression I'd made as I realised what was about to happen.

"You want me to eat it?"

"…Yes." He nodded.

"As in, put it in my mouth?" I clarified.

"Yes."

"Are you going to, too?" I challenged. If I was going to be eating a dead animal we'd just found then I sure as hell wasn't going to do it alone.

His mouth opened and closed a few times, like a goldfish. He was just stood looking at me in wonder. Normally I would have been insulted, but I was just too tired. My eyes were watering and struggling to stay awake.

"You…I'm never…How have you even lasted this long?" He shook his head in wonder after struggling to find words.

I shrugged, trying not to take the comment seriously. I was pretty bad when it came to smarts, but I always managed to stumble through life. Wait, he probably meant the last eight days…not life.

It didn't take long for William to pull his faithful, rusty knife out of his pocket and start work on the animal.

"I had a pet rabbit once."

He ignored me

"-two actually." I corrected turning away in disgust as he pulled the knife into the rabbit and skinned the poor dead animal. However hungry I was I didn't think I could take this! What had the world come to? Eating as good as road kill, where were the days of McDonalds and tinned food?

I couldn't believe after being captured and nearly killed, my grumbling stomach was my biggest problem.

I babbled as I often did to distract myself, pulling my necklace out to play with. I felt the one ring clinking against my unicorn pendent. I couldn't believe it had only been a week since that night. Paula and Molly had been so happy with the beans on toast feast I'd made them. We'd all been happy. It felt like a lifetime ago.

_God, I could do with some beans on toast_…and instead I'm eating a half rotten rabbit.

I toyed with the ring between my fingers. I could feel the dent of the little elvish letters beneath my thumb. It was sort of comforting to have something Molly and Paula had given me with me. It was like my grandmothers ring, it was comfort.

"They were called Thumper and Daisy, only we found out too late that they were both boys. I don't think Daisy minded that much though. My mother and father said they'd sent them to a farm one day, I'm pretty sure they were killed by foxes…but I was too young….-"

"Do you ever stop talking?" William spluttered.

"Rarely." I turned back to him. He was sat, legs crossed watching me, rabbit in front of him on the floor, ready to roast…or however you cook a rabbit. I was glad he'd thrown the skin somewhere…it made it less real. He glanced back and forth between us.

I wanted to tell him to put it on a plate or a leaf or something, but it was hardly a five course banquet and I wasn't sure how much table etiquette applied in the wild world we were living in.

"Ready?" He grimaced.

"Ready for what?" I said stupidly.

"To eat the rabbit."

"_Raw_?" I was literally disgusted.

He didn't actually expect me to eat _raw _rabbit? My stomach didn't agree with my and gave an angry gurgle. If my stomach could talk it would be telling me what a dumbass I was for snubbing food. Like _actual food_, when all I'd eaten was berries for the last _seven_ days.

"Aren't you going to cook it?" I pressed. I thought I'd have more time to get my head around the idea of eating a rabbit anyway, but without it even being cooked? I didn't know if I could do that.

"We can't cook it. If we start a fire then, those creatures will know we're here."

"But we could catch a disease or something" Yanoe, salmonella… ,...puking my guts up.

"Bacteria is good for you." He encouraged waving my share of the dead animal towards me.

"You can die from food poisoning."

"I'd rather have food poisoning than a spear through my face." He said coolly.

"Don't be a smart ass." I snapped.

"If you don't want it then I'll eat it." He smirked smugly at my discomfort pulling the last chance of food out of my reach.

"No!" I protested. Ugh, this boy was infuriating!

Obviously I didn't want to eat the rabbit. But I didn't want to starve to death either. It was dead already, it would be wasteful not to. Plus William had wounded my pride. He didn't think I'd be able to stomach it, and I really wanted to wipe the smirk off his face.

He watched amused as I snatched the rabbit and raised it to my mouth in one sweep. It seemed I was going to provide his pre-dinner entertainment.

_I can't believe I'm doing this. _

After chocking down the rabbit –with minimum chewing and retching-, which was bloody, disgusting and horrible. William decided we could start a fire after all, for warmth until the sun rose in a couple of hours.

_The bastard_.

_The slimy lying bastard_. I'm pretty sure he did it on purpose, to make me suffer.

He spent the whole meal, if you can call it that, talking about Thumper and Daisy and to think I thought he'd been ignoring me! I sort of wish he had.

"You know, you've probably traumatised me." I snapped as he mimicked a gagging sound I'd just made, at the thought of what I'd just eaten. I could still taste it in my mouth. It hadn't been anything like a meal. It had been more like chewing bloody rubber.

"Man up. If eating a rabbit had this effect on you, I dread to think of how hard tomorrow will be."

A thought popped into my head again, as I watched him sitting there, completely at ease by the small fire. He looked so relaxed and at home in the wild, and he'd taken that creature in the cave down like a pro.

"Have you done this before?" I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously.

"Done what before?" he frowned.

"You know…rabbits….fires…survival."

"In a way." He replied sheepishly after a short pause.

"I've been camping and you know….I like outdoors stuff, but I'd never have any idea how to skin a rabbit or…you know…handle a knife." I nodded in the direction of the sharp weapon, avoiding looking at it directly.

He nodded in acknowledgement before we lapsed back into silence. But this time, I didn't have the slightest problem with it. In fact I was just thinking about how wonderful it would be to close my eyes and sleep when William dew me back out of my airy thoughts with an odd sort of cough.

"How old are you?" He asked, lips pursed looking me up and down.

I felt pretty self-conscious. I hadn't washed properly in more than a week, I probably looked like a wild savage woman with my matted hair and dirty skin. I was abysmally aware of the fact that I hadn't shaven either, I doubt he was, but it added to my embarrassment by a tenfold.

"I am seventeen. It was my birthday in May. How old are you?"

"Twenty two." He looked surprised at my age, but answered quickly turning away.

My curiosity peaked again. I had to make a choice between sleep or nosing. But I might not get a chance to ask him openly again. He'd finally actually started a conversation and I was very against ending it.

If I'd learnt anything over the last day, it was that William did not like sharing. If I wanted anything I was going to have to drag it out of him.

"When's your birthday?" I probed.

"September."

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"Brother." He grunted.

"I have three. All younger, they're perfect. Tom, Josh and Benjamin. What's yours like?"

"I never met him." He said looking back into the fire mysteriously.

_Being a big mouth again_. Something bad probably happened and I was sat here prying like a thoughtless idiot.

Before I'd gotten the chance to apologise he was looking back up at me, with what I think was a smile on his face. He looked a lot younger when he was smiling.

"You should sleep. We can play twenty questions tomorrow." He droned sarcastically.

"I'll hold you to that." I smiled brightly at him.

He looked freaked out. Mental note to avoid smiling at him again. Or smiling at anyone if that's the best reaction I'll get.

_Smiling creeps people, keep smiling to a minimum. _

I rolled my eyes at myself, curling up into a very uncomfortable position, ready to sleep. I was exhausted, but even after the horrible week I'd just had it still made me uneasy to sleep in the middle of a field, with only a strange boy to protect me.

Whenever I peeked through my eyes, William was staring off into the distance. I knew I was being paranoid with the thought of being watched but, hey ho.

After much longer than I expected I drifted into a troubled sleep, filled with monsters and rabbits and sharp rusty knives.

I was wrong to trust him, I woke up a few hours later to his snores a foot away from me. The fire had been extinguished and William had moved, so that his head was close to where I slept, arms crossed firmly in front of him.

"Ugh, William" I snapped smacking one of his shoulders in annoyance.

_I thought I was supposed to be the idiot. Dumb ass, falling asleep! Damnit._


	5. a romantic proposalof sorts

_Summary: Katherine Frost is in Middle Earth, it took her a while to figure it out, but now she's certain. The problem is, Lord of the Rings was just supposed to be a story. She wasn't supposed to see death, feel pain or truly love anything about it. Only…she totally does. On top of the drama of the situation, she has to deal with an obnoxious annoying man-boy who's stuck with her, the embarrassing girl problems, the fact that she understand none of what anyone is saying because they refuse to speak English and the constant degradation by those around her. (T for language)_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing other than my own creations and this story is written purely for creative purposes._

_4,759 words, yikes! This hasn't been edited properly, but I wanted to upload it just before my final exam week! Eek. Nerves. It was annoying me so I took a break from revision and added. I wonder if any of you can guess__ who the dudeys in this chapter are? _

**A Touch of Frost: A romantic proposal…of sorts**

29 June 3017

I was one week into my little road trip with William, and we were coping way better…sort of.

It turns out, William was kind of an ass sometimes. I'm not even sure if he was meaning to be so rude or not, but sometimes he'd make nasty little jibes, realise what he'd done and then apologise after.

The worst and most embarrassing of his little snipes came earlier that day, along with another not totally unexpected and completely unwelcome surprise. In the form of, my period. I'd known it was long in coming, in fact I think I might have even been late, but I still hadn't come up with a way to deal with it.

Thankfully it wasn't that bad at all, pain wise. But it was pretty gross in every other respect. I'd been woken that morning, to have William point it out to me, none too politely (As if I might not have noticed).

I guess it made me feel better to know how uncomfortable it made him as I asked for advice on what to do.

He'd turned and told me to let him think with little rosy tints on his cheeks. His cheeks had nothing on my flaming face, I thought I might combust with embarrassment.

He'd grunted that I should wait where I was, until he came back with hands full of green stuff, which turned out to be dry moss weeds from the rocks. And well it wasn't difficult to guess what he wanted me to do with them.

The likelihood of finding sanitary towels in the wild were slim to none, so all I could do was suck it up and use the moss after cleaning up as best I could, grateful for my black knickers.

He'd mentioned how disgusting he thought it all was as we'd set off that day.

Annnnnnd, then I threw a stick I'd been playing with at his back. It hit him pretty hard.

Other than his superior attitude, everything was going as well as it could I suppose. We hadn't encountered anyone yet which was partly good and partly bad.

William didn't think we were in Britain any more. He said after two weeks we should have encountered someone. But he wasn't sure if we could be somewhere else. The whole, not coming across anyone was actually pretty unnerving. I was beginning to think we'd never get home and I'd be destined to wander through fields with the damn man forever.

On the plus side we had come across a huge river, which had given us the chance to have a proper wash in a few days ago, finally. The current had been slightly dangerous so we'd had to find a shallow part, which was safe enough up to our knees. I managed to wash from my hair to my poor swollen feet.

Unfortunately, my shorts, vest and underwear had gotten wet and been a bother throughout the day, clinging to me awkwardly, but it was hot enough for them to dry out again before the time we'd settled for sleep.

The river had provided us with more than just a bath that day as well. I drank until I felt queasy from all the water jumbling in my belly. And, I will never know how- but somehow, William managed to catch some fish. Like more than one. So we'd lighted a fire and had a feast that day, and it was actually pretty damn good.

It wasn't something I'd want to do ever again once I got home, but after the raw rabbit, it was just lovely. We'd stayed as close to the river as we could throughout the travels so we could normally manage through the day with minimal complaint.

There were no trees any more. Not even the odd few scattered across the land- it was just long dry fields and bumpy terrain. It made it much easier for walking, through the forest my feet had gotten pretty battered tripping over roots. I'd asked once if I could borrow Williams shoes- I'd forgotten what it was like to have happy feet, but he'd say no, point blank, no negotiating.

Meh, he could keep his yucky boy shoes if they were that important to him.

I was sort of becoming less in pain the further I got. The pain was still there but I could ignore it much more easily. I was becoming like a bit of a feral child I think. I thought this experience would break me- which it might have done without William- but I was stronger mentally.

Which was another much needed quality, to deal with Williams disturbing sense of humour. I'd known when he'd made me eat raw rabbit that he was slightly…not all there. Sometimes he'd come out with sick jokes about losing limbs or talk about death happily.

But I started to notice a sort of dazed look, every time he said something which made me uncomfortable which made me think he maybe wasn't as detached as he'd like to believe.

He must have had quite a hard life to be so hard. I thought about the scar running down his stomach sometimes. It had been quite faded and old. It might not have been anything, maybe an operation or something as a child.

One thing I was sure of, as I asked him questions about what he thought had happened or about anything remotely related to him was that he was hiding important things. We'd gotten into this mess somehow _and he knew something_.

After we'd found a place, deep in the grass to settle for the night, William had excused himself, I assumed to use the toilet. He returned a few minutes later with piles of moss he'd collected from rocks or somewhere, I didn't feel the need to ask…

When he'd dropped them into a pile by my side without a word and turned slightly away from me to look at the sky.

Wow, girl supplies! I smirked at his cuteness. I loved the kind little things that William did, but it did make me feel guilty for thinking he was an ass sometimes or for being so suspicious of him.

"Thanks, night!" I chirped awkwardly, rolling onto my side, to face away from him. Ready for half a nights rest before the cycle of the last week would start again.

A sleep and watch schedule had been set up to make sure that nothing crept up on us as we slept. To be perfectly honest, I didn't really do much good. I'd woken William up a few times over the week for him to investigate and find nothing. He must have thought I was just waking him out of spite.

I wished I could sleep all night, while William watched out for danger, but then we'd end up in a situation like we had the first day we'd woken up after that delightful rabbit meal!

With William snoring close by my head curled in a tight ball.

'Resting his eyes' _pft_.

Nah, the watches were completely necessary especially if we were being followed or hunted by the things in the cave, which I no longer thought we were, it had been a whole week after all….shows what I know.

"Katherine. Get up, now." He shook me roughly by the shoulder. He didn't even allow me time to blink my eyes open and ease myself out of sleep before he'd lifted me onto my feet and dragged me forwards stumbling alone behind him. He never let go of my elbow as we walked, I was use to him hauling me along behind. I think it was just his way so tried not to be annoyed every time it happened.

We were moving fast, thought the grass. Some, came up to my knees, but we trundled through.

I was still tired and probably half asleep, but something was _obviously_ wrong.

"What?" I asked, fully awake now.

He didn't look back too answer.

"There's something out there, we have to go."

"Frankenstein?"

"Maybe." He sighed at my unusual nickname for the creatures that had held us in that cave. What else was I supposed to call them? They were definitely not human, only they sort of looked like humans in a way. They must have evolved differently or been burned horribly deformed. Either way they were evil and not right.

William and I had held many conversations about them over the last few days. They seemed less terrible now that I hadn't seen them in so long, but the memory of them was still something I'd rather not dwell on. William just called them 'things' after a brief spat about Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Apparently, the scientist had been called Frankenstein and the monster hadn't, but I wasn't really hung up on the details. All I knew was they were totally bad.

Now that we'd started plodding onwards, I could hear something too. A heavy sort of patter, but I wasn't sure what it was. Footsteps maybe.

It didn't take long to find out, because as fast and William and I were going, we couldn't outrun horses. Once we'd crossed through a patch of particularly high grass, we'd been surrounded, from nowhere. They circled in around us, coming into our sight just metres away.

They were massive. Huge. And there were _lots_.

I'd never seen horses this big before, they looked like they'd been bulked up with steroids or something horsey, I barely reached beneath their heads as they looked down at us. They looked angry. The horse's expressions mirrored that of what I could see of their riders in the darkness.

Their heads were misshapen and covered in shadows. They were _pretty pissed_ and it scared me. A circle was made around us, William despite trying his best could not hide me from their view. We were trapped and completely surrounded. Worst of all they had long, sharp spears pointed dangerously close to us.

I closed my eyes and pushed my face into Williams's back, glad for the first time that he was much taller than me.

Why did bad things always happen?! It was about time that I caught a break!

Grunting words rung through the air harshly, but I kept my face in Williams's shoulders for safety. I didn't understand any of them, but he sounded angry.

What if they were going to make us go back to that cage? We'd totally die. And William wouldn't be able to fight off this many people. Or things. This wasn't going to end well.

I imagined the horrible fate that might befall us, it would probably be painful, really painful. And bad.

With every pause for breath the voices got angrier. When he stopped I thought that must be it and inhaled deeply ready for anything. Well, nearly anything.

The foreign language in an all too familiar voice came as somewhat of a surprise to me. I stepped back, not believing my eyes or ears really.

William didn't glance back at me to see how I was taking his spontaneous change of language. He hadn't mentioned he could speak another language? But then he hadn't really been that open about anything had he.

I took a step to the side, mesmerised as I watched him speak. He seemed quite confident…and fluent. He must be pretty familiar with the language to speak like that. And very in control. Like he was telling this guy what was going to happen.

Which really didn't seem like a very good idea. The spears were still pointed dangerously close to us. Why was he showing them who was boss? He was probably going to get us killed even faster!

William is Scottish? Maybe it was a sort of Gaelic dialogue. I didn't even try to close my mouth, I was gawping openly at the exchange in front of me. No longer totally afraid, I was a bit miffed and annoyed and lots of other things. I was put out that I couldn't understand

The huge shape, which turned out to be a man, slid from the front horse, the largest horse seemingly.

This guy was scary. Williams hand closed around my wrist as I took in the sight before me. He was truly humungous, towering about us both. He took a few steps forwards so that we could see him better.

He was not how I expected him, tall (clearly) in a thick armour that made his massive form look even bigger. His square shoulders could cover three of me, easily. His armour was dark, I couldn't see what colour in the lack of light. His face was hidden too, but not just by the darkness, a massive helmet masked his face and expression, he had long light hair, tumbling past his shoulder- I might have thought that it was a woman if he wasn't _so big_. I could make out a pair of dark, shining eyes glittering in the little light given by the stars.

He seemed to radiate something that made me afraid…power maybe? Whatever it was, I didn't like it. And I was glad I had William. But I didn't like the way he was clinging to me. If he made me look weak, then they'd think I was weak.

It didn't matter that _I was weak_, they didn't need to know that- whoever these crazy men were!

I could use William as a human shield I suppose, if it came down to it. But he still wasn't looking at me, all I was getting was his broad back, which looked puny when next to the colossal man.

The tall scary man stood in front of us eyeing us up, warily. There was not a jot of trust in this guy's face and I don't think William missed that either.

He spoke a few more words and then silence fell around the little group of people.

I'd nearly forgotten them, but I could feel the tension around. Nobody was happy about this, so maybe –they'd let us go? Just skip on our way to carry on living our life like wild things.

_Oh man, what was going on with my life?!_

"William-what?"

He turned and put his finger up to silence me. Before turning back to talk to the massive blonde man stood in front of us.

After an even briefer exchanging of words between William and the man who seemed to be in charge, definitely involving me, William nodded looking slightly disgruntled.

He _finally_ turned back to me. Thanks, for ya know, acknowledging my existence! I would have snapped at him, if he had looked a little less serious and unhappy. I knew shit was about to go down. I hoped it was good shit.

"This horse is injured Katherine, it won't be able to carry both of us." He said slowly, looking at me, with a narrow eyes.

What? Were we going with these strange men now? I glanced around, the eyes seemed to be mostly on me. Pink bunny pyjama's no doubt.

"I don't want to go." I blurted, unthinkingly. Not that it mattered, none of these men could understand me anyway, maybe. Ugh! Some might understand me.

"This is their land. We don't have a choice, if we don't go willingly, then they will _make_ us…"

We had to go with these men. Ok fine. We had to go with the men. This was their land. Well then, they could take us home and then I could find a phone and ring home.

But we had to ride a horse? I couldn't ride a horse, no way. So I'd have to ride with William and this horse couldn't take two people so there really only was one solution.

"So, lend another horse!" I nodded.

"Um, Katherine." He said slowly, "we need these men to like us. Horses are…they are important to these men. None will part with their horses. They say I should ride this one and you should ride with one of the others. I will stay close, _I promise_."

I scoffed, but before I could say _anything_ I was interrupted.

"No sulking Katherine. You have to do this." He insisted.

The nerve of it all! He was worried I'd sulk? Of course I was going to sulk. But first I might punch him in his pretty stupid, bearded face.

"How dare you." I said sweetly in the nicest voice I could manage. "You arse. You know how to speak with them?! Where are we? You want me to hop on a horse and buddy up with one of these strange men? They _still_ have spears pointed-"

"No Katherine. You have to do this. I'll explain everything, but you just have to behave. Please" He added the last word on when it looked like I was going to argue.

See, William knew everything all along, he was probably in on it all. I'd been such an idiot to trust him. All he did was feed me fish and I was willing to trust him with my life. I really am an idiot.

"Good" he said quickly before turning back to his new friend grunting in their strange language. I'd never heard anything like it, really. I thought Gaelic would have been similar to Welsh, but I'd drag it out of William later, if I had to beat it out of him.

Before I knew it another man had dismounted, not quite as tall as the first but still gigantic compared to me. And was leading me blindly towards his horse.

There was an awkward moment where I think I was expected to scramble up onto the horse, but I think we all knew that wasn't going to happen. Eventually with a clueless look from me, he put his hands around my waist and hoisted me up, holding my ankle to make sure I was safely on board the horse train. I couldn't believe he'd put his hand on my leg and I hadn't shaved in weeks, I know it wasn't important but it totally was.

My arms wrapped themselves as firmly as they could around the horse's neck- clinging for dear life. Once the man had climbed on the horse behind me, which wasn't completely unexpected, he managed to pry my arms and pin them at my sides. He had been saying a few words, but I didn't understand them.

What I did notice was that the man was quite old. Very old, probably. His hands were very wrinkly, and he had a softness to his voice even though I didn't understand his words. He shuffled, horse with him, to wrap a thick green cloak blanket tightly around me, even though I wasn't all that cold.

I was sort of touched by the gesture. After a call from the man, whom I'd assumed was the leader we were riding and I definitely appreciate the cloak. The breeze from the horse was enough to throw me off, so the man who I was riding who smelt pretty badly by the way, wrapped his arm firmly around my middle.

Ugh! What a horrible situation.

I spent the majority of the time shooting William evil looks. I once again in my life, wished my vocabulary was as advanced as Paula's had been. The words she could throw at that man child, just wow. True to his promise he did stay very close, which made it much easier for me to glare during our very uncomfortable ride.

No one has ever explained to me how uncomfortable horse rides were. The smell after a while, was incidental. But my butt was hurting and I was completely aware the whole time, that I was on my period and I was literally, praying that the man with his arm around my waist didn't or hadn't noticed.

We finally stopped after what felt like forever. The moon had moved completely in the sky…or maybe we'd been the one moving. I didn't really understand astrology. I'd love too, like that seems like one of the types of things that everyone is surprised that I'd show interest in. Like how surprised everyone had been when I'd used YouTube to teach myself how to knit (a box of half finished scarfs in my room at home was proof enough of this). I hadn't been very good at it, but I'd carried on and enjoyed it.

Anyway, the sky had changed a lot by the time that we had finally stopped. I could see a faint flickering light in the distance, the man I was riding with, kept going very sure of himself, dead into the centre of the camp, leaving William a little behind. I left a seething glare in his direction as we slowed to a trot and rode out of sight. The guy, despite being old slid from the horse like a freaking pro, while the horse was still moving. I dismounted less than gracefully, wrapping my arm firmly around the horse man's neck as he steadied me.

He didn't look put out at all. In fact he smiled, eyes crinkling beneath his helmet and tightened the blanket around me, motioning for me to sit down as he lead the horse away. I did so warily, noticing quite how many men there were now in the sort of make shift camp we had ridden into. There were easily fifty all scattered, some around fires, some with groups of horses and a couple crowded around a tent nearby.

No one really seemed to be worried much about me, which I suppose was fine. But I didn't want to be on my own. _What was going to happen now?_

A familiar pair of stupid white trainers appeared at my side and because I was feeling pretty bratty and ignorant after the last couple of hours.

"What's going on William?!"

He sighed sitting down next to me.

"How can you understand what they're saying?"

"Kath, I'm really tired. So tired, can we do this later?" He said lowly, sort of sad.

"What about the people in the cave? Did you understand them too? Has this just been a sort of game for you?!" I ignored his pleas, desperate for answers.

"No, you know it hasn't. And no I didn't understand the people in the cave" He sighed.

"But you understand these? How?" I spat.

"They speak different languages. It doesn't matter how."

_It totally mattered._

"Where are we?"

"I'll tell you _everything_ tomorrow ok? But we both need sleep." He said firmly sounding annoyed.

I eyed up the other men distrustfully, with my legs crossed in front of me.

"They won't hurt you, I'm sure." William grunted at my side, laying down a mat conjoined with mine, I scowled at how close together we were sleeping, but it would be safer than being in the open with a bunch of strange men around.

"How do you know that?" I whispered lying down at his side, pulling the smelly green cloak I'd been given tightly round my neck.

"They…uh…they think you are my woman."

I let the silence hang for a beat.

"Excuse me?" I hissed, seething. His woman, _what did that mean?!_

"They think that you're mine, they won't hurt you don't worry. Just go to sleep, we're both tired, we'll do this tomorrow." He could barely mask his frustration, he could at least pretend to feel guilty! I rolled away from him again.

"Is that any way to speak to your woman?" I said sarcastically.

"You're right, I'm sorry." Before I knew what was happening he'd rolled next to me to his face was close to mine.. "I should have asked you first, but what I did was for the best. I'm sorry."

I was very uncomfortable with the closeness of him, I felt smothered, so I did what anyone would do in my situation. I pushed his face away.

"Go, prat."

"Ugh! Kathy!" he recoiled, slightly annoyed.

"Katherine." I corrected.

"Whatever. Shut up, look pretty and pretend you're madly in love with me."

That was short, blunt and very to the point.

"That was a romantic proposal. Tomorrow, I will be sure to swoon at you in front of every single of those men and horses. You'll be the apple of my eye, _hubby_." I snorted the last word.

"Um." He sounded mightily suspicious…

"What?"

"You're um…"

"What?" I persisted

"You're more…like…my woman…uh, _mistress._" He finished.

Hm. _Just let that sink in for a minute Frost_. Well. _Would you fancy that_?

"You ass face, shit bag." I snarled loudly, his hand coming down on my mouth to keep me silent.

"Katherine. I don't think you understand what sort of situation were in. Things are different here. I'll explain when we've slept. I'm very tired." He finished tiredly, maybe to highlight his point.

I kept silent for a while, but it took all I had not to bite down on his hand until he let it fall away, letting his arm slump as he started to snore behind me- which made me feel immediately guilty. He'd been really tired but he'd kept on going.

But still, _his mistress…._

What was the point in arguing? I didn't speak the language anyway, no one would understand me! What would possess him to ever say that? He could have said, friend. Or if not, sister or even wife, but _mistress_?

Would I have to act and pretend? Obviously. That's why his arm was still trapping me against his stupid sleeping chest. How far would it have to go? Because if he thought he was going to get anything out of this-

How well did I actually know him after all? He could be a creepy pervert. He could be a freaky freak. But then he had looked after me for the last week. Fed me, tried to keep me safe….

The internal debate lasted longer than I thought it would, but in the end I realized I didn't really have a choice. And however much William annoyed me, I was sort of reliant on him. I didn't have a choice but to pretend.

_Mistress._ Ugh! What a creep.

It would be just be for show if I went along with it. There'd be no funny business, never ever.

If there wasn't going to be funny business, then I should start by removing myself from his arms. It was weird-ing me out. I wasn't comfortable with it. I could feel him shifting about me, it made me a bit flushed and I wasn't really sure why. Because I definitely wasn't even entertaining the idea that I was remotely interested in him _romantically_.

I know what it's like to be really into someone and that wasn't at all how I felt about William. In fact I thought about him in more of an annoying brother sort of way.

Or, there used to be a really good looking boy in school with Paula, Molly and me, but he was a _complete jerk_. But you just couldn't help but admire his fine physique. Even so, I didn't like being touched. I doubted it was just him either. I didn't want to be touched point blank. I needed space.

I tried shuffling myself out of his steely grip. I wasn't going to roll over and make this easy for him. I pushed slowly away from him, careful not to wake him but before I'd gotten as far as an inch his arm came down hard and strong around my middle again, pulling me backwards.

"Will-"I moaned shrilly.

"Sh." He grunted, loosening his arm slightly before dozing off to sleep again, arm still tight.

Ah, this guy was so weird and I had a horrible feeling he was going to be the bane of my existence with his stupid stubbornness. But at least his massive man arm was keeping me warm under the itchy green cloak.

Might as well get some sleep I thought, glancing round to make sure no one was watching us or doing anything suspicious. With a final huff I settled my head on the ground hoping desperately that I could just cram in a few more hours sleep before I definitely found out what was going on tomorrow-_His mistress? These strange men? This language? This place? What was this?_


End file.
